Posted tagged ‘Home Prices’

This is an indication that the housing market is starting to stabilize. As prices rise more homes should come onto the market and level out the market even more. For a more detailed look at this subject – please read the article below.

The home price recovery moved in a less focused and more broad-based direction in May as available listings sank, a housing trend report shows.

According to Realtor.com, the median listing price of homes in May this year was $214,900, a rise of 8 percent compared to year-ago levels. Month-over-month, prices ticked up 2.4 percent.

Of the 146 markets tracked in the survey, all but eight reported annual price improvement, Realtor.com reported.

“This May’s housing market stands in significant contrast to last year in which price increases were less generalized and more concentrated in specific metropolitan areas,” the company said in its report. “This broad increase in price suggests a more evenly distributed recovery and a healthier national housing market.”

Part of May’s increase in prices came from a 0.4 percent month-over-month drop in listings, which totaled an estimated 1.7 million. Last year, Realtor.com reports inventories were 5.8 percent higher.

At the same time, inventory shortages have eased at the local level. In May, only three markets—Stockton-Lodi, California; Boulder-Longmont, Colorado; and Houston, Texas—posted year-over-year inventory declines of more than 29 percent. A year ago, nine markets had deficits higher than that amount.

Adding to that, the handful of California markets that reported large declines last year are now seeing inventory come up, helping to moderate price gains. Last year, some of those same markets posted price increases of higher than 20 percent as inventory turned down 25 percent.

Annual home price gains pulled back sharply in April, falling short of market expectations, a report released Tuesday shows.

In its latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices report, S&P Dow Jones Indices recorded an annual price increase of 10.8 percent among both the 10- and 20-city composites. Those figures compare to year-over-year increases of 12.6 percent and 12.4 percent, respectively.

A consensus of economists surveyed by Econoday called for a gain of 11.4 percent in the 20-city index.

Of the 20 cities tracked, 19 posted lower annual appreciation in April than in March, S&P Dow Jones reported, with only Boston coming out ahead.

“Last year some Sunbelt cities were seeing year-over-year numbers close to 30 percent, now all are below 20 percent: Las Vegas (18.8 percent), Los Angeles (14.0 percent), Phoenix (9.8 percent), San Diego (15.3 percent), and San Francisco (18.2 percent),” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Other cities around the nation are also experiencing slower price increases.”

Monthly numbers looked slightly more encouraging: In April, the 10- and 20-city composites posted respective increases of 1.0 percent and 1.1 percent, accelerating over March. Out of the 20 cities surveyed, all reported month-over-month appreciation.

In its latest Home Price Index, CoreLogic reported that home prices continue to rise across the nation, with more increases to come in 2015.

The company reported that home prices, including distressed sales, increased 10.5 percent in April from the previous year. The company projects home prices will continue to increase by 1.0 percent month-over-month in May. Furthermore, national home prices are expected to rise by 6.3 percent from April 2014 to April 2015.

“The weakness in home sales that began a few months ago is clearly signaling a slowdown in price appreciation. The 10.5 percent increase in April, compared to a year earlier, was the slowest rate of appreciation in 14 month,” said Sam Khater, deputy chief economist for CoreLogic.

April marks the 26th consecutive month of year-over-year home price gains. Excluding distressed sales, CoreLogic found that home prices increased by 8.3 percent year-over-year.

Unfortunately, despite the modest April gains, home prices across the nation remain 14.3 percent below their August 2006 peak.

“Home prices are continuing to rise as we head into the summer months. The purchase market continues to suffer from a dearth of inventory which we expect will continue to drive prices up over the year,” said CoreLogic president and CEO, Anand Nallathambi.

Excluding distressed sales, all 50 states and the District of Columbia showed year-over-year home price appreciation in April. The company found that 23 states and the District of Columbia are at or within 10 percent of their peak.

A bad first quarter and still a 1.3% increase in home prices is a good sign for our the housing market. If the growth rate stays about the same for the rest of the year it will be great for the economy. For a more detailed look at this subject – please read the article below.

Despite disappointing home sales in the first quarter of the year as winter storms took their toll, home prices increased 1.3 percent over the first three months of the year on a seasonally-adjusted basis for the purchase-only market, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

“Although the first quarter saw relatively weak real estate transaction activity—in part due to seasonal factors—home prices continued to push higher in the first quarter,” said Andrew Leventis, principal economist for FHFA, with the release of the agency’s House Price Index.

Leventis cites the “modest inventories of homes available for sale” as a major factor in the first-quarter increase.

While the rose 1.3 percent over the quarter, first-quarter prices were 6.6 percent higher than prices recorded in the first quarter of last year, according to FHFA. This compares to just 0.8 percent growth in the price of other goods and services.

When adjusted for inflation, first-quarter home prices are 5.7 percent higher than they were one year ago.

Home prices rose in 42 states and the District of Columbia over the first quarter of the year.

On an annual basis, only one state posted a price decline over the year in March—Vermont, with a 1.24 percent decline.

This is what should be expected in today’s market. A small but consistence uptick in home prices, nationally, is good for the market and also good for the inflation rate. For a more detailed look at this subject – please read the article below.

Home prices continued to ascend through the end of the first quarter, though increases slowed down to match other weak indicators.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, released Tuesday, recorded a seasonally adjusted 1.2 percent monthly rise in prices across 20 of the country’s top markets. Removing adjustments, the index climbed 0.9 percent month-over-month.

A consensus forecast from economists surveyed by Econoday called for an adjusted monthly increase of 0.7 percent.

Compared to a year ago, March prices were up 12.4 percent, a step back from the 12.9 percent annual increase recorded in February.

“The year-over-year changes suggest that prices are rising more slowly,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Annual price increases for the two Composites have slowed in the last four months and 13 cities saw annual price changes moderate in March.”

Despite decelerating price growth, all cities in the composite index posted higher prices than a year ago, and four locations—Boston, Charlotte, Portland, and San Francisco—are now within 15 percent of their previous peaks. Denver and Dallas, which recovered to their perspective peaks months ago, continue to push up, meanwhile.

This seems to be a case of business as usual in the real estate game. Distressed properties are a strong influence on the existing market and they will continue to be so into the foreseeable future. For more details please read the article below.

Despite a lackluster spring that went against analysts’ projections, CoreLogic reported in its latest Home Price Index (HPI) that home prices, including distressed and non-distressed sales, still rose from February to March by 1.4 percent.

Without distressed sales, the HPI still reflected positive gains for the month, up 0.9 percent month-over-month.

Yearly, home prices rose by 11.1 percent from March 2013 to March 2014. Excluding distressed sales, the yearly gain is slightly less at 9.5 percent.

“March data on new and existing home sales was weaker than expected and is a cause for concern as we enter the spring buying season. Interest rate-disenfranchised potential sellers are adding to the existing shadow inventory, while buyers who can’t find what they want to buy are on the sidelines creating a new kind of ‘shadow demand,'” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist at CoreLogic.

“This supply and demand imbalance continues to drive home prices higher, even though transaction volumes are lower than expected,” Fleming said.

Moving forward, CoreLogic’s HPI suggests that home prices will continue to rise, growing 6.7 percent by March 2015. CoreLogic’s analysis of March also projects that home prices will continue to grow monthly, increasing 0.8 percent in April (including distressed sales).

The share of all-cash sales reached a new high in the first quarter of 2014, even as the total share of institutional investor purchases dropped to near-record lows. All-cash sales made up 42.7 percent of all U.S. residential property sales for Q1, up from 37.8 percent from the previous quarter, according to RealtyTrac’s U.S. Institutional Investor and Cash Sales Report.

All-cash sales increased yearly as well, up from 19.1 percent of all sales in Q1 2013. All-cash sales are the highest they have been since RealtyTrac began tracking this data in 2011.

“Strict lending standards combined with low inventory continue to give the advantage to investors and other cash buyers in this housing market,” said Daren Blomquist, VP at RealtyTrac. “The good news is that as institutional investors pull back their purchasing in many markets across the country, there is still strong demand from other cash buyers—including individual investors, second-home buyers and even owner-occupant buyers—to fill the vacuum of demand left by institutional investors.”

15 percent of all-cash purchases were for foreclosures, with 10 percent for REO properties. The average sales price of an all-cash purchase, $207,668, was 13 percent below the average estimated full market value of $237,900.

While all-cash purchases were soaring to new heights to start the year, total investor purchases dropped to the lowest level seen since Q1 2012.

5.6 percent of all U.S. residential sales in Q1 2014 were from institutional investors, which RealtyTrac notates as a non-lending entity that purchases at least 10 properties in the past 12 months.

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